Phreshwater

9.05.2007

On Saturday, September 8th, renowned and outspoken musician and filmmaker Michael Franti and his group Spearhead – along with Guerrilla Management – present the 9th Annual “911 Power to the Peaceful Festival” at Speedway Meadow in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The free music and arts festival is dedicated to social justice, non violence, coexistence and environmental sustainability and aimed to educate, enrage, enlighten and inspire. It drew over 60,000 attendees in 2006.

Artists confirmed to appear alongside Anti- recording artists and headliners Michael Franti and Spearhead at the event include Indigo Girls, Lifesavas, and Hot Buttered Rum. The event will be hosted by Hard Knock Radio and broadcasted live on Pacifica station KPFA. Special guests and speakers will include journalist, author and Democracy Now! founder Amy Goodman, MOVE Member Mario Africa, and others.

In addition to the main stage of International Musical Artists and award-winning speakers, the PTTP Festival will also feature morning yoga, an open-air art gallery, a healing arts tent, vendors and food booths, an eco village, a bicycle coalition and social, environmental & political organizations tabling and forums. This year’s DJ Tent will be headlined by DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid and Bassnectar.

A family-friendly kid’s zone will boast arts and crafts with an amazing peace flag-making workshop with Daily Acts, live theater with the Big Tadoo Puppet Crew, games, story-telling, face-painting, organic “snack time,” and an exhibit from the Museum of Children’s Art and a mid-afternoon Kid's Parade. A favorite in the kid’s zone is the sing-a-long with Michael Franti, where the festival founder visits and sings with the youth. An exciting addition to this year’s festival will focus on Franti’s new children’s book, What I Be.

9th Annual Power to the Peaceful Music and Arts FestivalSaturday, September 8thSpeedway Meadow, Golden Gate ParkAdmission is FREE

Power to the Peaceful After PartySaturday, September 8th / 9 PMMichael Franti & Spearhead PTTP All Star Jam SessionMezzanine (444 Jessie Street @ Mint)w/ special guests Heavyweight Dub Championplus live DJ sets by Hoola, the Shamanic CheerleadersTickets are $30.00 and available now at www.powertothepeaceful.org.

Since 1998, the free, outdoor “911 Power to the Peaceful Festival” has been a fun, educational, hip and diverse annual experience. The first event was held in a neighborhood park and drew 6,000 people. In recent years, it has grown to draw over 60,000 people to the spacious Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Past artists and speakers have included The String Cheese Incident, John Butler Trio, KRS-One, Digital Underground, Woody Harrelson, Angela Davis, Dennis Kucinich, Ram Das, Blackalicious, Alice Walker, Talib Kweli, The Coup, Saul Williams, Keller Williams, Lyrics Born and many others.

In a year that is shaping up to be his most active year yet in support of the peace movement, Michael Franti visited and performed for injured soldiers at Washington’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past April, before participating in a fundraiser for Iraq Veterans Against the War. In May 2007, Franti performed an extremely rare San Quentin Prison concert, extolling the virtues of peace in a performance before some 2,000 inmates.

The award winning filmmaker Franti - who is responsible for I Know I’m Not Alone, the heralded 2005 documentary about the Iraq War, and the subsequent 2006 Anti- debut Yell Fire!, which was inspired by his travels to the war-torn area - has been praised for his commitments to peace, tolerance and co-existence from journalists and formal and informal leaders throughout the globe.

Franti and Spearhead will celebrate the success of their breakthrough 2006 Anti- debut Yell Fire! by releasing a live, digital-only version of the acclaimed disc this October. In advance of its extensive U.S. autumn tour, the group is currently at work with producer Matt Wallace (The Replacements, Faith No More, John Hiatt) on its next album, due via Anti- in 2008.

8.15.2007

For those waiting for a concert experience with the dynamics of a rock band (read: no laptops), the dance inducing rhythms of club music, and the sophistication of modern electronica, an unlikely musical alternative has arrived in the form of the band Lotus. Formed at a Mennonite college that had banned on-campus dancing as late as the 1980’s, Lotus brings their club-worthy beats and rocking instrumental anthems to theaters throughout the country this fall. No glow-stick bracelets, pretentious Can trivia, or expensive distressed fashion required.

Lotus’s new release, Escaping Sargasso Sea (May 2007), is a double-disc live album that draws from two previous studio albums, Nomad and The Strength of Weak Ties, along with never before released material. From the post/math-rock of “When H Binds to O” to the slippery dance beats of “Wax,” this collection shows Lotus’s ability to deconstruct, stretch, and rebuild their compositions spontaneously on stage. Restraining from flaunting their individual chops, Lotus builds compositions on catchy melodies and heavy grooves.

The five-piece band has creatively fused electronic dance music with instrumental post-rock for eight years. The result is an explosive live show that has made crowds get down across the US, Canada, and Japan. Armed with a massive light rig and one of the most energetic shows on the circuit, Lotus proves why they have become a go-to act for late night festival slots. This tour takes the band into renowned theatres nationwide including the Ogden Theatre in Denver, the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Park West in Chicago, and the Bowery Ballroom in New York.

7.06.2007

The Disco Biscuits have announced Camp Bisco 6 - the sixth year of the band’s always-anticipated annual music festival. Reputed for each year offering music’s most cutting edge and experimental innovators, Camp Bisco 6 will host three nights of music and camping at the Indian Lookout Country Club in upstate New York. Camp Bisco 6 welcomes in a new-era of internationalism and diversity. In addition to three nights of epic Disco Biscuits sets, Camp Bisco will host Simon Posford, OTT and YOUTH as they bring their dub circus project, Hallucinogen: In Dub to the states for its first ever U.S. appearance! Also confirmed: Israeli trance band Infected Mushroom, the stretched and skewed soundscapes of Brazilian ex-pat Amon Tobin, stunning sample craftsman Girl Talk, dance-punker The Juan Maclean, precision jammers Umphrey’s McGee, Sound Tribe Sector 9 (playing a live set one night and a PA set the other), Adam Deitch featuring Slick Rick and The Adam Deitch Project, underground heavyweight Bassnectar, innovative dance music by The Bays, a soulful DJ set by King Brit of Digable Planets fame, experiemental rockers Benzos, Allston, MA based Indobox, world-beat collective The Afromotive, plus Zilla, EOTO, The Join (featuring Jamie Shields & Darren Shearer of The New Deal and Tom Hamilton & Clay Parnell of Brothers Past), The Grimace Federation, Digital Frontier, Strut, Caveman, Telepath, Psylab, and Orchard Lounge.

In addition to three nights and two full days of music, Camp Bisco 6 will offer unlimited car camping, plus RV and family camping areas, daily “Color Wars” festivities which have become a signature Camp Bisco pastime, and of course plenty of food and craft vendors. Indian Lookout Country Club, located in Mariaville New York just ½ hour from Albany and 3 hours from both Boston and New York City, boasts 200 acres of serene rolling hills and natural beauty, and such amenities as flush toilets and showers. As always, Camp Bisco will work with various local officials, venue managers and The Camp Creek Organizers to ensure music fans a fun and safe weekend.

Also this year, Camp Bisco will “Go Green.” Camp Bisco 6 will be powered by 100% renewable energy, thanks to sponsors Green Mountain Energy Company and Sustainable Waves. Green Mountain Energy Company and Sustainable Waves are pleased to offer Camp Bisco attendees the opportunity to “green up” their concert experience by purchasing a “Green Ticket.” When you buy a Green Ticket, Green Mountain will green-up the Camp Bisco concert experience by providing, on the ticket buyer’s behalf, 250 kWh of green-e certified renewable energy made from sources like wind and bio-energy. By purchasing a Green Ticket, each individual can help offset an estimated 348 lbs of CO2 created by activities like driving their car to the show. For more information please visit www.begreennow.com/greenticket250 and visit www.campbisco.net to purchase a Green Ticket to Camp Bisco 6.

After a very successful food drive at last year’s Camp Bisco, where over 1,000 pounds of food were collected, The Disco Biscuits and not-for-profit Conscious Alliance will again partner to collect donations to benefit local food pantries. Conscious Alliance will be releasing a limited edition print by artist Rob Pea , FREE to those who contribute 10 non-perishable food items or a specified cash donation to the food drive. Donations of low-sodium and health food oriented products are especially encouraged. Ramen Noodles will not be accepted for the free poster. For more information on the important work of Conscious Alliance please visit www.consciousalliance.org.

Event Information is as follows:CAMP BISCO 6August 16-18th 20073 nights of music and campingIndian Lookout Country ClubMariaville, NYTickets available now at www.campbisco.netwww.discobiscuits.com andhttp://biscotix.musictoday.comTicket prices are $130.00 / $145.00 til 5 PM on August 15 /$160.00 at gate (ticket prices include car camping for all three nights)Visit www.campbisco.net, www.meatcamp.com, or www.discobiscuits.com for tickets and information

Long recognized as the preeminent trance-fusion band in the United States, the Disco Biscuits have forged a new path in the improvisational music scene, leaving in their wake dozens of imitators while leading the charge in the now dominating live-electronic touring circuit. In the twelve years that the Biscuits have been around they have created a huge following and garnered a great deal of critical success.

SPIN magazine has dubbed them the "forefathers of Trance-fusion", while Entertainment Weekly called 1998's "Uncivilized Area" the #1 Jamband Album of All Time. "Señor Boombox," released in 2002, was named one of the Top Ten Jam Albums Ever by Guitar Player and 2002's Best Studio Album by Relix.

Highlights of this last year include playing to 25,000 people at Bonnaroo and 20,000 at Lollapalooza, the hosting of their 5th annual Camp Bisco (whose line-up included The Roots, Brazilian Girls, and Thievery Corporation) at Hunter Mountain, and the release of their "Caterpillar" video on MTV Latin America. TDB sold out 15 shows in a row on their spring tour & closed out the year with another nine sold-out shows, culminating in a three show New Year’s run. New Year’s was filmed in an HD documentary, titled Progressions, depicting the band's rise from club/theatre band to arena headliner in the Biscuits' hometown of Philly. 2006 saw them reach new heights and this year only promises more.

About Me

Shane is the Co-founder and principal of Peppermint, the company behind the open source +Peppermint OS Linux distribution. Shane is a specialist in IT, network technology, systems integration and project management with more than 15 years experience.

Shane is currently living in the Asheville, NC area with his two daughters and carnivorous plants.

About PhreshWater....

PhreshWater.com and .net began in 2002 and survived as an online music webzine for many years. I owned, edited and wrote for PhreshWater.com for the entire time that it was live on the Internet. This blog is no longer active but serves as an archive of articles, reviews and interviews that I had written over that time period. Thanks for stopping by!! - Shane